Newry, ME – Engineers hired by an insurance company have identified the cause of a lift failure that was discovered in July, when it was observed that the top terminal of Sunday River’s Spruce Peak triple chairlift had detached from the ground.
The foundation detachment caused the lift’s top terminal to be pulled downhill to a 90-degree angle by the weight of the haul rope, which then allowed the haul rope to release from the terminal’s bullwheel and fall, lowering most chairs to the ground. The resort, State of Maine Tramway Board, and MountainGuard Insurance worked to understand the cause of the incident. Sunday River does not operate the Spruce Peak lift in summer, so the failure was unwitnessed and caused no injuries.
Findings by MountainGuard engineers have identified concrete grout failure as the cause of the incident. Concrete grout had been used to adhere steel reinforcement bars from the lift terminal’s foundation to the bedrock below. Engineers took core samples from the bedrock where concrete grout was present to use in its tests, which confirmed the findings.
The Spruce Peak Triple was a three passenger fixed grip chairlift built in 1986 and manufactured by Borvig. The chairlift was located on Spruce Peak and was 4,205 feet long with a vertical of 1,205 feet. Sunday River is strung across a broad ridgeline featuring a row of adjacent summits, and with Spruce Peak right in the middle of that ridgeline and directly above the primary base area, the Spruce Peak Triple serves an important role in moving guests out of the base area and across the resort. It is, however, easily avoided by using the lifts on South Peak in conjunction with either Aurora Peak or Barker Mountain. The absence of another lift on Spruce Peak, though, renders the resort’s Gnarnia, Risky Business, American Express, Overdraft and Downdraft runs inaccessible without walking uphill along the green-circle Sirius trail to Spruce Peak’s summit.
Resort officials therefore in August announced the installation of a new three-person chairlift on Spruce Peak and a new top terminal on Locke Mountain. Both the new chairlift and top terminal are manufactured by Doppelmayr USA, Inc., and construction is currently underway.
Like the original Spruce Peak Triple, the new $2.1 million dollar Doppelmayr fixed-grip triple will be built in the same location and use a conveyor system to help load passengers onto the chairlift. Passenger ride time is expected to improve from 12 minutes to 10 minutes with the new lift.
From the engineers’ findings, Sunday River made the decision to also replace the top terminal of its Locke Mountain Triple chairlift. The Locke Mountain Triple is the only other chairlift at Sunday River engineered in a way that’s similar to that of the Spruce Peak Triple. It was built in 1985 and was also manufactured by Borvig—now Partek Ski Lifts.
Pending completion of the Locke Mountain top terminal installation, Sunday River’s opening day terrain will either include terrain on Locke Mountain or terrain on Aurora Peak. Either way, Sunday River is still shooting for the title of first to open in the East, which historically occurs in October.